My thoughts and ideas for cardmaking and an occasional altered project!

Friday, December 2, 2011

Jingle Bell Tutorial!

Before I start my tutorial, I just want to remind you that there are 3 days left to vote over at The Blog Guide Book! And actually, I am about 10 votes behind 1st place.......so if you don't mind popping over there, I would REALLY appreciate it! : )

I have had many requests for a jingle bell tutorial. It has sort of become my new obsession lately. (Like I needed another obsession!) ; ) I picked up a couple of packages of these babies, in two different sizes. I got them from Hobby Lobby for a pretty reasonable price. When I took this picture, I thought I had wanted 3 different colors of jingle bells but ended up changing my mind and actually made 4 different colors. But in any event, you need to separate them onto different paper plates. I found this worked better than newspaper, as newspaper tends to stick.

I used Krylon spray paint in four different colors. I loved this minty green color!

See? Newspaper? This is how I know not to use it! (I was peeling off the red sales add for quite a while!) ; )

This part takes a bit of patience. You spray the color lightly, let it dry, shake your paper plate, and spray again. It will take a few times to get an even coverage over the entire jingle bell.

Once all of your bells are covered, and you are satisfied with them, bring them indoors to give them a sugary coating. This part is a bit messy! I used glossy accents to coat each bell and then roll it in glitter. A spray adhesive would work too. The only problem I found with the spray, is it has a tendency to move your jingle bell around the plate too much. So I had to keep my distance a bit.

....Place them in a bowl full of glitter and roll those babies around!

It is a bit messy, but the results are worth it! And honestly, I will probably have jingle bells till I'm 80! : ) Oh! And see those brown textured bells? That was sprayed with Suede spray paint! I love the cool look of it!

Here is a Christmas card using my lil' bells. The chipboard house is from Maya Road and I covered it using the Helmar Crackle medium. It is such a cool effect! I added a bit of texture paste for snow and sprinkled it with glitter. The sweet image in the doorway is from Crafty Secret's Creative Scraps. I even added tiny curtains to the windows!

I also added some tulle, twine, rhinstones for smoke from the chimney, and a Melissa Frances flourish. And of course, those sugary jingle bells! ; )

The family and I are headed downtown tomorrow to see the Christmas lights, ice skate, and have lunch. I know the days of my 14 year old wanting to spend time doing this with us may be coming to an end. So I will take advantage of it while I can!

Loved the tutorial. I have been thinking of doing this for a long time, but was a little scared to try it. Now, I have to make these! What color did you use for the brown. I can't decide what one to use. Thanks!

Thanks a bunch for this tutorial. I have 80 jingle bells to do something with so will give this a whirl. Hope you win the contest. I voted for you of course. I absolutely love your blog and all your ideas.

Great tutorial, Michele. I just picked up a whole bag of these out of the floor last night that the kids had gotten into. Now I know what I can do with them. Thank you..Oh I just voted and you are way ahead in the lead!!Yay!! Good luck!!Hugs:)Angela

Another beautiful card, and thanks so much for the tut. on spraying the jingle bells. I always appreciate others teaching me what they have already learned to avoid when doing a project. I just voted for you, and it looks like you are in the lead. Good Luck, you deserve this honor. Linda S. in NE

I wish I had seen your tutorial before today as I made 30 cards with bells and had to use the gold and silver ones when I could have used any color :( Oh well, there is always next year. Thanks for the tutorial.

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